The Wedding Feast of Cana

2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (C); 01-16-2022

Is 62:1-5.  Ps 96.  1 Cor 12:4-11.  Jn 2:1-11

Deacon Jim McFadden

            St. Paul has compared the relationship between Jesus and his Church as that of a bridegroom and his bride (cf. Ephesians 5:22-23).  What that means is that God loves us so much that he wants to be married to each and everyone of us.  “The two shall become one” (Genesis 2:24; John 17:21).  Amazing!

            We hear suggestions of this unique relationship in the first reading taken from the prophet Isaiah who is addressing the desperate Israelite exiles in Babylon.   After suffering decades of degradation in which they lost everything—their freedom, land, kingdom, king, and Temple—which was brought about by their infidelity, the people were finally coming home.  Isaiah says, “Nations shall behold your vindication and all kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name…no more shall you becalled ‘Forsaken’ nor our land ‘desolate’ (Isaiah 62:2,4).

            How shameful it must have been for the Israelites: they were God’s “treasured people from all the nations” (Deuteronomy 14:2); now, they are conquered, exiled, and enslaved.  In the midst of this utter loss, we hear these extraordinary words from Isaiah: “For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be espoused.  For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you” (Is 62:4c-5a).

            People of God, these striking words may contain the heart of biblical spirituality: the Creator of the entire Cosmos, with its billions of galaxies, wants to marry his people.  He wants to marry you:  He will share his life, the richness of his very being.  In so doing, “the two shall become one.”  This is the crux of Scripture because God is not a deist abstract substance detached from humanity.  Nor, is he a blind force a la Star Wars  or an amorphous cosmic energy shown in Avatar.  No, the God of revelation acts and moves within history and declares his intention to marry Israel.  I can’t imagine Luke Skywalker saying that!

            As we move into the Gospel, let us keep in mind that Jesus is Immanuel, God among us.  He is Yahweh in the Flesh.  So, harking to Isaiah, we shouldn’t be surprised that motifs of weddings and marriage frequently come up in his ministry.  We see it today in the unforgettable story of the Wedding Feast of Cana

In John’s gospel.

            At first blush, it seems like a very modest way for Jesus to begin his public ministry as he’s asked to solve a very practical problem of a wine shortage that is causing the host awkward embarrassment.  Our Blessed Mother notices this and says to Jesus: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).  If nothing is done, it would have to continue with water!  One can’t imagine very many would have stayed.  So, Jesus is being asked to do something practical and make things better.  But, read from a spiritual level, there’s much more at work here.

            The Scriptures, especially the Prophets point to wine as a typical element of the messianic banquet, which we see in Amos (9:13-14), Joel (2:24), and Isaiah (25:6).  Water is necessary to live but wine expresses exuberance and the joy of celebration.   Try doing that with mineral water!

            So, when Mary says, “They have no wine,” she’s not talking about a practical, social problem.  Mary is alluding to a great lack in Israel, indeed, of the entire human race.  We’ve run out of joyfulness, the exuberance that comes from being in union with God.  Like the Israelites in the Babylonian Captivity, we’ve run out of the divine life because of our contemporary pursuit of false idols.  Instead, we are alienated from God and each other and creation—just witness our state of anxiety, polarization, and degradation of the environment.  The Great Divorce has resulted in “no more wine.” 

            Her next line is the last words that she will utter in the New Testament, and what an instructive line it is: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).  These words are such a precious legacy that our Mother has left us.  Beyond the practical level, she is calling us to fidelity and obedience: do whatever God calls you to do and you will find life even if the commandments seem harsh and painful.

            That’s the hinge, isn’t it , brothers and sisters?  Fidelity and obedience.  God wants us to have life.  The trouble is that people did not do what God told them.  That’s why they were in Exile.

            So, here’s Mary summing up the prophetic tradition simply saying, “Do whatever he tells you.”  What happens when we do?  We’ll find wine that we’ve been missing.

            The servants in Cana obey: “Jesus says to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them to the brim.  He said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast.’ So they took it” (vv. 7-8).  What’s happening is that a New Covenant is being forged at this wedding.  And a new mission has been entrusted to the servants of the Lord, namely the entire Church: “Do whatever he tells you.”  To serve the Lord means to listen and to put his Word into practice in every dimension of our lives. It is the simple, essential recommendation of Jesus’ Mother.  It is the program for a Christian life. Amen.